With his latest job, Mark Dippe played to change history. Thanks to his computer and his imagination, he convinced us all that the clumsy protagonist of the filmForrest GumpAmerican actor Tom Hanks chatted amiably with John Lennon, shook hands with JF Kennedy, and received a presidential and warm greeting from Richard Nixon. As if those already deceased or retired characters were actually on the set at the same time that the director, Robert Zemeckis, shouted the familiar “Action!” Luckily or unfortunately, we know that this is all nothing more than a genius digital trick born from Dippe’s mind. Not surprisingly, this nervous, coletus and passionate young man of cybernetics works for one of the most important special effects companies in Hollywood, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).
–I have to confess that seeing Forrest Gump rub shoulders with Kennedy or John Lennon one can get scared. The new digital technologies are capable of almost everything, even changing history as in an Orwellian tale …
-It is a question that we all ask ourselves. And, deep down,Forrest Gump allows to reveal a very real danger. Many people become afraid of digital technology. They say: “Who assures me that when Bill Clinton appears on television it is really him and it is not a computer trick?” This movie is an example of how you can pretend that people do things they haven’t done. In any case, I must say that the threat is not that serious. At the same time that computing allows images to be modified in an almost undetectable way, the public can learn that what they are seeing is nothing more than a trick. Something similar happens with magazines. People already know how to give true value to photographs and extract from them what is fact and what is the photographer’s point of view. Furthermore, digital technology is more of a democratizing weapon than a repressive one.
–Oh yeah?
-Yes. Today, to make movies you have to be privileged. You have to pay for a very expensive team and hire hundreds of employees. With digital technology it is possible to reduce this process and have a single person manipulate the camera, create the actors, do the makeup, even in your own home. A new generation of digital film directors will be born. And the same will happen with other areas of science and art and economics.
Inadvertently, Dippe has engaged in a highly ideological monologue. He cannot disguise his status as a cyberculture guru, so he posits the intelligent and committed use of digital technology, computing “with attitude.” You have to remind him of the reason for the interview: he is one of the anonymous stars of the Hollywood firmament.
–Your company has become an inexcusable reference in the history of cinema …
-I think so … And the culprit of everything is George Lucas, who founded ILM in the seventies for the first installment ofStar Wars. His intention was to create the most incredible images ever filmed.
–And you entered ILM to bring your knowledge of digital effects. In other words, where there used to be models and miniatures, you put synthetic images created by computer.
-Yes. My first serious work was the marine pseudopod from the movieAbyssby James Cameron. That was the first feature film in history where a character created exclusively by digital technology acts; that is, it exists only on the computer. However, the event that made us famous all over the world was the filming ofTerminator 2, where we turn the protagonist, Robert Patrick, into a liquid metal cyborg. For this we made Patrick wear only a thong and painted his entire body with black stripes. So we filmed him for four hours walking, running, jumping and doing all kinds of movements to record on a computer the arrangement of those lines at all times. It was a bit embarrassing for him to do all those things in his boxer shorts in front of the large technical team. But it was very important to know how each pore of his body behaved in order to reproduce it in a liquid image.
Talking to Mark Dippe is like recreating a catalog of hits that will go down in celluloid history. And of each one he has an anecdote, a curious event, a secret that always has the same enthusiasm. This is what happens when you remember the filming ofJurassic Park.
-Until then we had always used our imagination. But we could not invent dinosaurs: we had to be scientifically rigorous with their shape, size, movements … Our main difficulty was making the Tyrannosaurus rex, which does not look like any known animal: it is like a chicken of six tons with very large teeth. When the story was proposed to us, we interviewed dozens of paleontologists. None of them agreed with the others on how we should make the monster move. That is why we present a theory based simply on aesthetics. We did it without looking at the scientific data, we just invented an animal that was visually effective. Of course, the scientists said that was outrageous, but when we introduced them to the already created animal, they looked at each other and nodded: “Okay, guys, you may have had a good idea.”
–Do you think then that your technology can be a support used by scientists for research?
-Sure. Computer science allowed them to see a dinosaur in action for the first time. Immediately they began to make suggestions: “Why don’t you put your legs a little closer, why don’t you raise your head …?”. The best way to test a theory is to see its plastic form.
–And what surprise are you preparing now?
-I want to create a complete digital actor. That is to say, that the most famous character in the film, the person you look at the most, with whom you most identify and who makes you laugh or cry the most, is created by computer. I also work on a large imagery complex that can encapsulate the most futuristic aspect of cyberculture; a great cyber city full of images to be launched across the network.
–What will the actors think of your work?
– I believe that they should not be afraid, because the computer will never be able to replace the human being. The digital actor is nothing more than a physical representation on the screen, but behind it there is always a human gesture.
–Are there limits to this technology?
-Now we are creating digital actors, but maybe 20 years from now the cinema will use biotechnology to produce fantastic creatures of flesh and blood. With the help of genetic engineering, the teeth, muscles, skin and blood of these imaginary beings will be authentic.
–Is your work art or is it science?
-I consider myself an artist. The only reason I work is because I like to create an image, to tell a story. The important thing about this technology, call it art, science or whatever, is that it allows you to unleash your creativity and capture it whenever and however you want. Somehow science and art merge.
–You are a follower of cyberculture. Do you think it will really become a new way of life or, on the contrary, will it remain a mere passing fad?
-I believe that cyberculture is a very important step in the evolution of people’s consciousness. I imagine it will be overtaken by other demonstrations, I don’t know which ones, but it doesn’t matter. For me the world is indescribably infinite and rich. There is no reason to replace it, there is no reason to think that we can’t do a better job with it. As virtual reality and simulation are ways of extending our senses, they are a complement to the human brain. Therefore, the simple act of browsing the Internet, for example, is not enough. I would like to be physically in that network, to be part of it. I think that cyberculture is nothing more than a step towards our integration with reality. But it is not the definitive one.
We may not yet be ready to understand Dippe’s cyber message. So, for now, we can settle for just going to the movies, enjoying their amazing digital effects and staying in the room until the end of the credit titles to see their name, when almost everyone has left and only moviegoers remain. , the clueless and the asleep.
Jorge Mayor
This interview was published in April 1995, in number 167 of VERY Interesting
